Saturday, 22 November 2008

so I'm 271,776 hours old

Yesterday was my 31st birthday, guess I'm still young enough to openly admit my age. A friend helpfully sent me a link to an age calculator which calculated that as I write this I have clocked up 271, 776 hours old, or 11,317 weeks of existance. It kinda puts the speculation about the number of hours of sewing a person does in a lifetime that Carolyn and Erin have been musing about lately into perspective doesn't it? If 10,000 hours equals expert sewing skills (I have no idea how many hours I would have by the way), what have I been doing for the other 261, 776 hours?

Anyway, yesterday turned out to be a great day. Not only was it a sunny Friday, which in itself is always a good thing, my work colleagues came up with a yummy cake for morning tea, my husband gave me a day spa gift voucher and a box of chocolates, we had some lovely lebanese food for dinner, I had a bath using some fancy products from a huge gift basket my work colleagues gave me as a going away present and I scored a foot rub from my husband without too much coercion!

Plus yesterday was my last day of work until 1 Febuary 2010, yes that's right, 2010! It's been a long time since I had stretch of unplanned time in front of me, probably about 27 years I'd say. When I was three I went to pre-school, then primary school, then high school, then uni for 5 years, then full time work with another 2 years part time stint at uni for a masters degree, and the only real time off I've had is a few 2 month holidays that I had to save holiday time for 2 years to get anyway. Not that I'll be a lady of leisure next year, with a newborn to be looked after, but my time will (mostly) be own to do as I please.

After wrapping up a few loose ends at work, I spent the afternoon cleaning up my desk because it had become a complete shambles over the last few months. Don't believe me? Check out the before photo at left, and the after photo at right: Look at the shine on that desktop! Whilst cleaning up I found a lot of old stationery supplies gathering dust in one of my filing cabinets, left there by my predecessor which are worthy of a blog photo due to their retro styling:

However this isn't just funky retro packaging - it's the original deal! I do work in one of the oldest government departments in NSW, and we are situated in one of the early Sydney sandstone buildings, but seriously that is no excuse for having unused office supplies that must be at least 30 years old since Australia started going metric for weights and measurments from the 1970s. Although most of the people in my office are at least 20 or more years older than me, and many get the public service medal for 40 years service before they retire, so there's probably heaps more of it about the place. I'm not usually one to steal office supplies, but I figured no one would miss these so I brought them home with me.

Well the good husband is off at a bucks party tonight, so I'm having a quiet night in, baking some banana bread and watching crappy tv. Which actually is great - some peace and quiet for a change, and some uninterrupted blog reading is just what I need!

11 comments:

You may have unplanned time until February 1, 2010 but I can guarantee you that it will be the most fascinating, interesting and unbelievable time of your life especially after that little bundle of joy makes it's entrance!

I can't wait to read about and share the pictures of this amazing period of life that you are entering...I feel like the fairy sewing godmother! *LOL*

And Happy, Happy Birthday! 31 is truly going to be a good year for you!

You must feel like a free women! Enjoy :) And happy birthday. All the 30's are good. I had my first DD at 33 but only had 6 weeks off and then only 4 weeks for DD2. Working for the Government does have its rewards.

I don't think anyone will miss the ancient stationery - it must be at least 35 years old. We went metric in the early 70s, and I don't think I've seen anything sold by the "gross" (144, if memory serves...) in even longer than that.

Congratulations on your birthday and your maternity leave. Your child will only be newborn for a short time and soon you can play, go out for coffee and read books. Things quickly gets easier and funnier. :-)